Rooster Games 2017

On Friday our fourth graders participated in the 9th Annual Ashaway School Rooster Games!  All of the students who read at least five of the books on the list of nominees for the Rhode Island Children's Book Award were invited to participate.  The six teams (each a mix of boys and girls from both fourth grade classrooms) competed in a variety of games that were based on books from the list.

Rooster Games Champion Readers!

I had five students who earned special recognition by reading all 15 of the RICBA nominees that I bought for Ashaway School.  I started off the games by awarding Champion Reader medals to these students!

Two of the games are set up on Google Slides.  They are projected onto the large screen above the stage, and the students collaborate with their teammates to come up with the answers.  Then they use marker boards to display them and earn points.
 


  
Students match pictures from each book to their titles in the Illustration Round, and they answer multiple choice and short answer questions in the Question Round. 

 

For the "table top" rounds, the teams are matching the book titles to characters, settings, objects and the first lines of the books they come from.

Character Round

First Lines Round

Object Round

Settings Round

  

One of the RICBA titles, A Whole New Ballgame, inspired this year's reading relays: A Whole New BALLOON Game!  The first two games involved passing a balloon down the line of team members.  For "Hoops" one student passed the balloon up and down through hoops created by the team's arms, and for "Crabs" all the students passed the balloon down their line using only their elbows!

The last balloon game was the "Frenzy".   All of the students stood in the middle of the gym and the chaperones lined up on one side.  Then the grown-ups started tossing balloons to the kids who had to get the balloons to the opposite side by batting them with their hands.  

Any balloons that hit the floor were "out".  All the ones that made it all the way across were collected, then popped!  Inside every balloon was a slip of paper with a team's name written on it, and each team called earned a bonus point.  (There were 36 balloons so each team had 6 balloons with their names inside.)   There was almost as much excitement when I read the names out loud as there was when they were playing the game!

This year I also added an additional game: Charades!  This was a round that the teams could work on as they finished the table top games.  I had been worried that they'd be watching the other teams to get hints on the answers, but it turned out that they were all laser-focused on their own "actors".  

This year our Rooster Games winners were Team Red, Team Green, and Team Blue!  Yup, a three-way tie!  There's no prize for winning the Rooster Games, but at the end of the day all of the students who qualified to participate in the games gets to enjoy a pizza party sponsored by our P.T.O., so they truly are all winners!

      It was a really fun event, and it couldn't have happened without the support of our fourth grade teachers, our parent volunteers, and our Ashaway School P.T.O.  My sincerest thanks go out to them all! 

Miss Zemske Comes to Ashaway

Me ending my time at Ashaway in the Forbidden Forest during Reading Week

The 8 weeks I've spent student teaching at Ashaway have been some of the shortest weeks of my life. Well, I suppose I should say 7 weeks (never let anybody ever tell you that your immune system is strong enough for elementary school hugs or Pneumonia). In that time, I picked up one grade after another until I had stolen all of the students away from Mrs. Mann. Alas, the time has come for me to return my lil peanuts and attempt to be satisfied with a reflection.

Kindergarten

How to trace pigeon and add details to give him emotions

How many Pigeon books are too many Pigeon books? According to my kindergartners, there is no such thing. Kindergarten was the first grade that I picked up and we jumped right into our Mo Willems author study. We practiced with Knuffle Bunny, my helpers making sure I knew how to wake up Bear and do all the voices.

Then we moved on to Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus. We learned about context clues and how to tell what emotion Pigeon was feeling by picking out details. We also learned how to combine pictures with the text to make guesses.

And it was all down Pigeon from there...

Researching questions about Mo Willems

Making Pigeon finger puppets

First Grade

I picked up the first grade next. We learned about the characteristics of a fairy tale by creating a madlib together and read two different versions of Rumpelstiltskin to compare and contrast them.

Second Grade

With the second grade, I picked up where Mrs. Mann left off teaching the students about the difference between fiction and nonfiction and going over how to take notes. They did this by using nonfiction frog book which culminated in the activity "Fiction Frogs" where the students finished the sentence "You'll never see a frog..." and drew their creation. Another project I did was in collaboration with the Spanish teacher wherein I taught the kids how to find images labelled for reuse that we could use in a green screen activity.

Third Grade

I picked up the third graders last and had very little time to work with them during lessons. That didn't stop some of them from asking me to read Harry Potter to them - during recess no less! Far be it from me to say no to a request like that. Who needs food, anyway?

Fourth Grade

While teaching fourth grade, I think I created my personal best lesson. We learned about password safety - the why's and how's of creating a password that is both strong and memorable. I was so happy with the creation of this lesson that I chose it to be the one evaluated by both my professor and The Rhode Island Department of Education.

Replacing letters with symbols

Evaluating our own work

My parting from Ashaway was bitter sweet and surrounded by screaming goodbyes as the students left to board their busses. My hearing may recover but my heart never will. But who knows - maybe I will try to come back for a visit when they least expect it....

Librarians take reading week events very seriously

We're a Bunch of Happy Campers!

Once again Ashaway School enjoyed a very successful and fun Reading Week!  Every day was special as we celebrated books and reading with a camping theme!






Thanks to our fabulous PTO the week was kicked off by a "Books and Breakfast" event.  Students were invited along with their families to come to school a little early to enjoy a free breakfast and book fair preview.  Teachers were also welcome to join in on the fun, have something yummy to eat, and select books for a classroom "wish list".  

Here are just a few pictures from this fabulous week.  (You can see a LOT more by visiting our school photo gallery!)  Enjoy!

As always, Mrs. Bartkiewicz filled the hallway with balloons to welcome the students as they entered the building!

The bulletin board outside our library!

Students "warm their hands" by our library campfire!  ;)

Students in grades K-2 enjoyed a QR Code Listening Center.  They had six camping-themed books to choose from!

Students in all grades were invited to make their own "Camp Out with a Good Book" book mark!  (Thanks, Miss Zemske!)

On Monday the wonderful Tommy James amazed us all with his reading themed magic show!

Tuesday was a perfect day to set up outside for our Family Read-In!

Wednesday night's Book Fair and Ice Cream Social was a huge hit!

On Thursday students and staff were encouraged to dress as "Happy Campers".  Mr. Scanapieco welcomed everyone to morning meeting with a lot of spirit!

 My sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed to making Reading Week an enormous success!

 

Decisions, Decisions!

It was time once again for our fourth graders to made a really hard decision: Which of the Rhode Island Children's Book Award nominees should I vote for?







The end of February is when the students get to vote for their favorite, and I often get the question, "Do we have to pick just one??"  The RICBA committee does a really great job of choosing books the students will love!

The students need to read at least 3 of the 20 books on the list to qualify to vote.  It's wonderful to see the enthusiasm that they have about earning that right!

The winning book won't be announced until March, but the favorite at our school was Into the Killing Seas.  It's a true page-turner!  I've been reading it aloud for my after-school reading club and the kids groan whenever I close the book!  :D

 

Library Centers!

This school year I've begun implementing centers in the library, and it has been a huge success!  The students love being able to choose their activities, and they are engaged in practicing their skills throughout their visit. 

I've focused on developing centers for my kindergarten students and plan to work my way up through the grades.  I'm excited to share some of the students' favorites and welcome ideas for more! 

Alphabet Art Center: Students are invited to write a word or draw a picture of something that begins with the "letter of the week".

Celebrations Center: Students can color an "alphabet practice" paper or select a book to browse based on the month's special days.

 

Alphabet Race Center: Each student sits at one of four alphabet strips and tries to be the first to "drive" their cars from A to Z!

 

Reading Buddy Center: Students can select a "buddy" to read with from a basket of soft, huggable friends.

 

The Pop-Up Book Center provides lots of fun surprises and reminds students that it's important to handle books gently.

 

QR Code Listening Center: Students use an iPad's QR scanner to access an online audio book!

 

Sorting Center: Students play a card game to practice sorting by shape and color.

Bookmark Center: Students can design their own bookmarks and help protect their library books from becoming "dog-eared"!

Writing Center: Students draw a word card from the bucket, sound it out, and copy it onto a marker board.  Then they draw a picture to go with it.

 

 

Computer Center: Students can choose from a variety of skill-boosting games and literature-based activities.  I've been introducing and adding options throughout the year.  To see the current menu click here!